Students Reflect on How Their Thinking has Improved

Each week my students take time to reflect on their learning.  This week I asked them to explain how their thinking has improved through the work we've been doing on integrative and design thinking.  Here are some of their responses.

Some of my thinking has improved in a way so that now I can look at bad ideas and not immediately dismiss them. I could look at something that goes against current logic and still find the benefits it provides. I can now not shoot up the ladder of inference, but I can look over new concepts and ideas more carefully, logically and efficiently.


I have learned not to shut down an idea just because at first look I think it's bad. I know now that I should explore the idea because in the end it could really be an idea that's really great and intelligent. A topic or idea could actually be an amazing idea if further thought and time is taken to explore. There are many values in a bad idea. The supposed bad idea could be further thought out and you could realize that you could give that one idea a chance. Even if you explore the concepts of the idea and you think it's a complete disaster, there could still be some information to create a new idea or improve one. ... As I went into my (bad idea) ... I realized it seemed like a cool concept. I realized there would be less murder and I went deeper and realized there'd be less war. I kept going and I kept finding new information.

My thinking has improved doing the work I've done so far by making me think in depth. It helped me realize that good can come from even a really bad idea. It made me realize not to just shut someone down right away, and to think before I say no. To really think about it and map it out.  Then to figure out how I can get the same results without doing something that's a bad idea. Also, it taught me to not go up the ladder of inference and infer something about an idea when I really know nothing.  It taught me to climb back down my ladder and go back into the data pool and look around so I don't make false assumptions. Overall so far it has taught me a lot of important stuff.

When you see a really bad idea, most people shoot up the ladder of inference and instantly say no, but if you look at it thinking of the good elements, you can see it in a different way.

My thinking has improved  from the work I've done so far because with this type of activity you can just let yourself think of any possible idea. ... by this I mean if it is a horrible idea that I will not shut it down at first sight. I will think deeper into the idea.


I think my thinking improved because it helped me see that every idea can be good or bad, but you can't tell on the surface. You have to delve into their meaning and what they are related to and see how your idea would affect another idea.

My thinking ability is obviously improving because right now I'm in a point in my life where it is easiest to take in information and to have my own opinion as to what I believe is a good way of thinking. In this situation I think this is a good way of learning. If I was in a situation where I had been pitched an idea and it didn't seem very good, I would use this way of thinking in my head to find good things about the idea.

My thinking has improved by a lot because the teacher made us find the value in bad ideas and then she made us think of our own bad ideas and we found values. I thought is was fun and it made me think for a while, so I thought that was good.

My thinking has improved because I've never thought you could change a bad idea into a good idea. My reaction was, "Is this even possible?" So later I found it was.

Over the course of this week and a half we have been focusing on this topic, my thinking has improved because I have begun to look at more than the surface of the idea. Generally there is more to something than you can see. Using the causal web you can break down the idea and see the potentials to it. This technique can be used in every day thinking which creates more understanding on certain topics and may lead to more advanced ideas. Without using this new way of thinking
you will not be able to see what can come of bad ideas that are proposed into  the world. Overall using this technique in the long run will be more productive as you will see more potential in a variety of complex ideas.

My thinking has improved because of the work I've done so far because if you see the value in a bad idea you can see the good in many bad circumstances.




My thinking has improved by the work we've done so far in the way I always go up the ladder of inference thoroughly before I make an assumption or idea. It has also affected my thinking in the way I think differently of other people.  What I mean by this is that I always think of how people come up with assumptions and ideas and I don't judge them so quickly.

My thinking has improved because of the changing a bad idea into a good idea. That made me think a lot! Now my thinking is getting so much better.

Since I've started doing the good things out of the bad ideas, I've been thinking that there is almost always something good that can come out of a bad idea.  So now when I see something that doesn't seem like a good idea I think harder of why it is a good idea and what benefits come out if it like when we were working on turning the gym into a chicken coop. I didn't think anything good would come out of that and then I realized that there was lots of good things that can come out of that and that was when I started to change how I thought about bad ideas.

My thinking has improved because when I write a story or have to brainstorm I used to just write down points and sentences. Now I can just pick 1 topic and build so many different ideas out of one idea.

My thinking has improved because I'm now learning different ways to plan and new ways to approach a task. My thinking has also improved because I think I'm becoming more creative when thinking about different ways I can approach a task. Plus it teaches you to not get stuck on one part of you task. You can always take a chance with any idea you think of.

I think my thinking has improved because it's a better way to look at things and put it into a different perspective. I know my thinking has improved because whenever I hear or see a bad idea I start mapping everything out in my head and thinking of ways to fix it or make it into a good idea. I also know that I can't jump up the ladder of inference. I need to stop and think and map out a bad idea. I also can't just look at an idea and say it's bad, I have to problem solve.